Developing A Machine Safety Plan for Your Workplace

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1. What is a Machine Safety Plan?
2. How To Develop your Machine Safety Plan
3. Develop Your Machine Safety Plan With Knox Thomas

In today’s blog, we’ll take a look at how you can create a machine safety plan for the equipment within your workplace. 

What is a machine safety plan?

A machine safety plan is a living document and system that ensures that your machinery is legally compliant, maintained in a safe condition, and operated safely by competent people. It is not a simple one-time document that you can complete and forget about- it needs to be reviewed and improved over time. 

Developing your machine safety plan involves identifying the risks associated with the machine, for example moving parts- as well as those associated with the safe operation of the machine, for example easy to understand controls. 

Overall, the aim is to ensure compliance with key safety standards such as PUWER 1998, the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, or CE marking requirements. 

How to Develop your Machine Safety Plan

At this point, I should make something clear- creating a machine safety plan is not a quick process that you can knock off in a day. This being said, the internet loves a list article, so…here are the ten steps to machinery safety! 

1. Establish Responsibilities

This is straightforward- you need to appoint a machine safety coordinator(s) who will take the lead and drive the project. Involve people from various departments in order to get an accurate and holistic review of the equipment in question, i.e. safety officers, maintenance workers, operators and management.

2. Create Machine Inventory

Again, this is relatively straightforward. Simply list all the machinery and equipment within your workplace. 

Record information that may pertain to machine safety such as CE marking status, date of installation, and availability of technical information. 

3. Carry out Risk Assessments

For each machine identified, assess risks relating to set up and start-up, operation, cleaning and maintenance, and emergency situations. 

Use standards such as EN ISO 12100 as well as a PUWER checklist to help guide you through the risk assessment (you can find our Knox Thomas PUWER checklist here):

Aim to identify all potential hazards, for example mechanical, electrical, noise, ergonomics, etc. 

4. Assess Legal Compliance

For each machine, you need to verify whether:

• CE marking is valid (for pre-2009 installations, check for legacy compliance). 
• A Declaration of Conformity exists (DoC)
• A technical file is available (if the machine is built for internal use, i.e. not to be sold)
• The machine meets requirements of PUWER.  

5. Implement Risk Controls

Next, you need to identify and implement appropriate risk control measures. Remember to balance these against cost and ensure they’re reasonably practicable. Follow the hierarchy of control when determining appropriate controls, starting with eliminating the hazard outright, and of course, ending at PPE as a last resort. 

6. Maintenance and Inspection 

If you haven’t already established these, you need to set schedules for planned preventative maintenance for each machine. Develop a routine inspection regime in accordance with PUWER, and ensure that you record maintenance carried out, findings during services, and action taken. 

7. Develop Procedures

For each machine, create step-by-step instructions covering set up, normal operation, shut down, cleaning and maintenance, fault reporting, emergency actions, and lock off and isolation procedures. 

These should be communicated to anyone affected by the machine operation, or expected to operate or otherwise work with the machine. 

8. Training

Ensure anyone interacting with the machine is provided with appropriate information, instruction and training, ensuring that they are aware of the risks and how to work safely. In most cases this will involve operators and maintenance employees. 

You must keep all training records on file and re-certify as required. 

Develop Your Machine Safety Plan With Knox Thomas

Creating a machine safety plan at its simplest will involve assessing the equipment against PUWER; at its’ most complex it involves navigating the myriad of criteria described within the Machinery Safety Directive and CE marking criteria. 

Either end of the scale can be a headache to comprehend, and developing a robust machinery safety plan can be a challenge that most manufacturers don’t have time, patience or confidence for. 

Of course, creating a machine safety plan is where Knox Thomas shines. We navigate the compliance journey for all your equipment, so you don’t have to. To take the strain out of machinery compliance, get in touch today.